Dear Parents/Guardians
During our English lessons, we teach Reading, Writing, Spelling and Grammar.
As part of our Spelling teaching, we teach ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics and spelling
on a daily basis. For approximately 15 minutes a day your child will be taught
new and familiar spelling patterns through a range of activities and games.
WEEKLY WORK!
One of the elements of our spelling teaching involves logging and learning
spellings in a Log Book. This helps children to record their individual progress
with spellings and build up a bank of words that they can spell, or need to
learn. We would like our children to share their Log Book with you on a weekly
basis so that you can support them with their learning.
Your child’s Log Book will come home each Wednesday and should be
returned by the following Friday. In their Log Book, children choose five
words that they have found challenging and then they circle the tricky bit that
they find hard to remember.
Adults or older siblings can review these words each week. One suggestion is
to call out each word in turn and every time the word is spelt correctly you
could initial next to the word. Children could either spell out the word aloud or
jot it down. Add a motivational and positive comment at the bottom of the
page if you wish to! Children are responsible for checking their own spellings
in Log Books and you will see evidence of this too.
There are some suggestions below as to how else you could help your child to
learn their words. Your child will not be tested on a formal basis on their
weekly spellings, but will continually revisit and revise, which we believe will
help them to apply their spelling knowledge more accurately.
It is incredibly important that your child does return their Log Book to school
(each Friday). Please help them to make sure this is done consistently.
Thank you and Happy Spelling!
Yours sincerely
N Agnew
How to learn spellings in Log Books
Adopt an interactive game playing approach eg play hangman with new words, write spellings
deliberately wrong and your child has to correct or sort them, Spelling Ping Pong – get all the family
to spell a word by shouting out the letters in order etc
Children can learn their spellings using the 'Look, Cover, Write, Check' Method. This encourages your
child to 'see' and 'hear' the word, and to see for himself if he spelt it right.
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Look at a spelling word.
Cover the spelling word.
Visualise the covered word in the mind.
Write the word from memory.
Check what has been written with the uncovered word.
During their Literacy lessons, children are given the opportunity to look for patterns in the spelling of
words and to invent rules and saying to help them improve their work.
Other ways to learn spellings
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Find words within the word (there's a 'hen' in 'when'!)
Break the word up into smaller parts (Wed + nes + day = Wednesday)
Break the word up into sounds (th-a-nk)
Make up a silly sentence using the letters (big elephants cause accidents under small
elephants spells 'because')
Say the word as it is written (like 'knight')
Find a word that rhymes with it: is the spelling the same?
Spelling rules
Help your child to learn spelling rules. There will always be exceptions, but they work most of the
time:
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6.
Most question words start 'wh'
i before e except after c
Add 's' for plurals except those that end in 's', 'x', 'z', 'ch' and 'sh', when you add 'es'
Nouns ending in 'y' change to 'ies'
Use 'ce' for nouns and 'se' for verbs (you advise with advice)
When adding 'ing' or 'ed', double the last consonant after a short vowel sound (so drop
becomes dropping or dropped)
7. Don't drop the final 'e' when you add 'ly' ('comely'), but do drop it to add 'ing' ('coming') .
Drop it when the suffix begins in a vowel.
Spelling Tips
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You hear with your ear.
The word separate has "a rat" in it (separate).
Donkeys, monkeys - There are keys in donkeys and monkeys.
The word here is also in its opposite there.
Villain - A villain is one who lives in a villa.
There is no word in English ending in -full except full.